The Wall Street Journal
18 Jun 2008
SINGAPORE -- Exports from Singapore in May fell the most in more than two years as shipments to the U.S. and Europe tumbled, highlighting the island state's exposure to weaker demand from Western developed economies.
The data come as Singapore's central bank has embraced a stronger currency to fight inflation; that policy tool might be causing unwanted harm to the important manufacturing sector.
Nonoil domestic exports fell 9.8% in May from April in seasonally adjusted terms, trade-promotion agency International Enterprise Singapore said Tuesday. The decline followed a 1.6% rise in the previous month and was wider than the 0.4% drop forecast in a Dow Jones Newswires poll of economists. May's contraction was the sharpest since January 2006.
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